


Rockslide

by YukiSkyes



Series: Tales From the Mountains of Odvirkast [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Dragons, Gen, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-10
Updated: 2017-03-10
Packaged: 2018-10-02 06:10:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10211291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YukiSkyes/pseuds/YukiSkyes
Summary: The weather may be warmer but that didn't mean the mountains are any less dangerous. Maybe the blabbermouth will keep that in mind next time when he waltzes into unfamiliar territory and ignores Keith.





	

The Rockfall Ravine wasn’t usually where Keith chose to wander. For one thing, it was a bit out of his way when he could just hunt around his own area for what he needed with just as much success if not more. For another, it was dangerous. Just as the name suggested, the area was prone to rockslides with a certain amount of noise.

But Rockfall Ravine was also the only place a certain plant, which was really good for treating general sicknesses and minor injuries, grew. For obvious reasons, it was a very useful thing to stockpile and it only grew around this time of the year.

It was really helpful he had Pidge around to look for the plants with him this time around.

They’d split up with Pidge searching from the sky while Keith made his way along the bottom together with Red, keeping an eye out for the greenish-blue curls of the leaves characteristic of the eica.

Red was helpful with her sense of smell in locating several, some high up on the rocky walls while others grew more towards ground level.

It was when he was halfway up one the walls that he heard it; a faint echoing that bounced off the rocks that made Keith let out a long, low hiss from between his clenched teeth. What were people doing here?

Whatever they were doing here, it didn’t matter. If they were loud enough to have their voices echo, they were going to put them all in danger.

Red was in complete agreement if her flattened ears and silent snarl was any indication.

They made their way as quickly as they could towards the source and as they got closer, they could start to make out the words.

“Hellooo! Are you there?”

“Sir Tynum? Sir Tynum!”

He spotted two figures in the distance and he sped up to meet them.

“Sir Ty—whoa, hey. Is that y—”

Keith nearly bowled the other person over slapping a hand over his mouth.

“Be. Quiet,” Keith gritted but then paused when he took stock of who the person was. “You?”

Of all the luck.

The guy he met in town looked just as surprised by the sudden assault as Keith was to find him, but he glared at Keith the moment he recognized him as well and he wrenched his gloved hand away from his mouth.

“What the—What’s the big idea? And what’re you doing here?” he demanded. His loudness set Keith’s teeth on edge and he tried to convey murder through his own glare.

“Be quiet,” Keith repeated, itching to stuff a rock in his mouth to get his point across. “Are you trying to bring the ravine down on our heads?”

The guy opened his mouth and Keith swore that if anything louder than conversation volume came out, he would make good on that urge, but he was interrupted by a nervous voice from the other person with the newbie knight. Keith forgot he was there.

“Uh, guys? Is that a… um… a lērus?”

The guy’s big companion was pointing at Red, who had a section of her teeth bared, tail swishing agitatedly in her annoyance.

“That’s Red. She’s with me,” Keith explained curtly.

“What? Seriously? You’ve tamed a lērus?” the knight squawked. “How? And what’re you even doing all the way out here? Living it?”

“Are you even capable of a volume that’s not obnoxious or is that too hard for you?” Keith seethed to which the knight looked about ready to punch him. He’s welcome to try.

“It’s not going to attack us, right?” continued the big knight, putting out two hands in a placating gesture. “Nice lērus… um… good kitty?”

Red let out a low, insulted growl, tail lashing sharp like a whip, not taking well to being talked to in that way.

“She isn’t going to attack you,” Keith ground out. He was fed up with these two. He wanted them out. “Look, I don’t know what you’re doing here and I don’t care. You need to leave before you do some damage.”

The knight from town seemed to take issue with that and he pushed into Keith’s space, jabbing a finger into his chest. “Oh yeah? Well, it’s not like you own this place and besides, we’re on a very important mission, something I bet _you_ wouldn’t care about, but it involves people’s safety.”

The jibe towards one certain mission in particular was clear.

Keith saw red.

His fist connected with a jutting cheekbone and then pain was blooming across his own cheek. He hardly felt it, too busy trying to get a good grip around a tan neck.

There were a flurry of sounds above and around him but all Keith could focus on was landing as many hits on that grating face as he could. Once or twice he thought he felt someone’s grip, but he lashed out against it as he continued trying to pummel the guy just as he was trying to do the same to Keith, lips curled up in a snarl.

His head bounced as his back impacted against stone and he brought up an elbow to aim a jab when the ground shook with a resounding boom.

Startled, Keith whipped to his right where the sound had come from and in the fraction of a second for him to realize with growing horror what it was and the implications of it, a rumble of crumbling earth and boulder thundered above.

A shout barely left his mouth before it was all crashing over his head, the impact of rock bearing hard and heavy upon his body.

He instinctively covered his head with his arms while the booming of falling rocks echoed above. It probably lasted only several minutes but it took a while before he realized when it stopped.

He opened his eyes but the darkness that met him might as well have not have made it a difference.

He gingerly tried to get up from where he somehow ended up on the ground, noting all the aches and scrapes he could feel as he moved. Luckily, it didn’t appear as though he suffered any major injuries, but the most he could do was sit up before he smacked his head against stone.

With a grunt of pain, he rubbed at the spot before trying to feel out the enclosure of what he resigned himself into admitting; buried beneath a rockslide. It didn’t seem like the space was very big.

A small groan from somewhere close by reminded Keith that he wasn’t alone when the rockslide fell on him and he tensed.

“Wha’ happ’ned?” came the unmistakable voice of knight from town.

Great. He was trapped in here with him.

“Rockslide,” Keith informed him shortly.

There was a sharp inhale and a pained noise. “Crap… I think my leg’s broken. My arm too.”

Keith frowned. That wasn’t too good. “Just hang on.”

He needed to figure out a way to get out. He hoped Red was okay. She was a lot stronger than Keith so maybe she could’ve freed herself or even dodged out of the way. With her sense of smell, she’d be able to find them.

“Rich coming from the guy just trying to beat me up a few seconds ago,” the knight grumbled.

Keith felt a spike of irritation sharp as a needle run through him. “You weren’t exactly the definition of friendly either,” he snapped. “I told you to leave and now we’re stuck in a rockslide.”

“Oh, so this is all _my_ fault?” The knight sounded incredulous for some reason.

“You didn’t even know what you were walking into. The ravine is prone to rockslides from noises and you and your buddy might as well be beating drums with all the yelling you were doing,” Keith growled, running a hand along the wall and cautiously pushing, trying to find a spot where he might be able to feel a thin rush of air or break something free, if not to get out, then at least to get some oxygen.

“Well, maybe if you explained it instead of attacking me like a crazy person—”

“I did.”

There was a half snort half incredulous laugh. “When?”

“When I told you to be quiet, like you should be doing now, if there’s ever a good time, so you’d stop taking up air with useless talk.”

There was nothing. The walls and ceiling wouldn’t budge. There wasn’t even a hole to stick his finger through. He didn’t think he wanted to risk yelling for help. Who knew how deeply they’re buried and whether there’s anyone around to even hear him. But then what was he going to do?

“Wow! Just how arrogant can you be?”

What? Where did that even come from?

“How is telling you to stop wasting air arrogant?” Keith couldn’t keep down his rising temper, after all, wasn’t that the sensible thing to do in this situation? Why was he fighting him on this?

“Well, I don’t hear you shutting up either!” came the indignant exclamation.

Keith clenched his fist and tried to remind himself that hitting a person with broken bones wasn’t a good thing to do. “I’m not the one going on about pointless things while we’re trapped under rock!” he retorted heatedly. This guy never seemed to be able to offer anything useful for all he jabbers.

“I’d like you to say that again to my face!”

“Sure,” Keith mocked. “Why don’t you get up here?”

The knight let out some curses but he was interrupted by a spate of coughing. The reason was clear. It was getting harder to breathe.

“Shit,” the knight wheezed.

Keith didn’t say anything, but he inwardly fumed. If the chatterbox had kept his mouth shut, they might’ve been able to hold on for maybe half an hour more at least. At this point, all he could hope for was that Pidge came looking for him and Red and found the rockslide. She might have some magic to do something about this.

“… Am I going to die here?” It was said in the barest of whispers. If they weren’t in such an enclosed space in dead silence, Keith would’ve never been able to hear him. He didn’t think it was meant for him to hear so Keith said nothing. He didn’t know whether they were going to make it out anyway and he wasn’t about to offer fake placations.

They didn’t say anything after that, struggling to conserve as much of the remaining oxygen as they could but as accustomed to thinner air as he was, even Keith was beginning to struggle. He didn’t know how the knight was faring but almost definitely worse off than him. Was he even still conscious?

It was suffering having to breathe in but never getting enough to fill his lungs and being able to feel that lack in every inhale. It was like trying to breathe in void.

Maybe he really was going to die here, but he’d been on the brink of death before and there’d been hope then. He had to believe there’s hope now.

At first, it was so faint he thought the oxygen deprivation was finally starting to make him hallucinate. But then it grew louder and louder until it turned into the unmistakable sound of shifting rock.

Keith felt his heart leap in stuttered beats, a grin forming on his lips.

“Keith!”

Pidge. He knew he could count on him.

“Keith!”

The second voice had his grin sliding right off even as the last boulder between him and release was removed and sweet air had him gasping in relief.

“Keith, are you okay?” Pidge had flown down to kneel next to him, checking over his injuries with those sharp eyes of his. Red leapt down to join him on his other side, but Keith waved them off. He was fine more or less. More importantly…

Keith sat up more fully, honing in on…

He was conscious. Oh Fel. He was conscious and gawping at Shiro as he carefully removed the boulders trapping his right leg and left arm.

Keith stumbled to his feet and started to make his way over to the knight, ignoring Pidge’s confused murmur. He didn’t know what he was going to do when he reached him but… but…

“Keith.”

The tone was gentle and it stopped Keith in his tracks. He slowly looked up at Shiro, whose eyes were bright with understanding.

“We’ll sort this out later,” he said quietly. “For now, let’s help them out first.”

Keith swallowed and nodded shakily.

“I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Yeah,” Keith croaked. He could feel Pidge sidling up beside him and Red bumped up against him. Their presence reassured him a bit but it still didn’t do much to the turmoil roiling in his stomach.

Shiro spared one last concerned glance at him before directing his attention to the knight still lying dumbstruck among the rocks staring at him and asked, “Are you okay? Can you stand?”

It took a while for the questions to register and when they did, a mess of gibberish that might’ve been half-formed sentences left his mouth but then his eyes caught on something over Shiro’s shoulder and they widened.

“Hunk!” he cried, trying to lever himself up but fell back down with a yelp of pain when he jostled his arm.

“Careful! He’s alive. Just unconscious,” Shiro was quick to assure, moving so as to better let the knight see the passenger slumped against his mane of black hair at the base of his neck.

Eyes sliding from his companion back up to Shiro, he haltingly said, “Are you… Are you…” The knight gulped and in a small voice finished, “Real?”

“I’m as real as you could ever be,” Shiro intoned and then grinned.

The knight returned it hesitantly. “That’s amazing.” His voice was full of wonder and for some reason, it kind of irritated Keith. It was enough for him to snap out of his stupor.

“You can be awed later. Can we hurry up and move on already?” he cut in, breaking apart from Pidge and Red to stalk over. To Shiro he said, “His arm and leg are broken. He’s not going to be able to stay on you.”

“I’ll carry him then,” Shiro decided before a contemplative look came across his face. “But… with one of them unconscious and the other one with broken limbs, we might not be able to drop them off as usual at the bottom of the mountain.”

“Then what do you suggest?” Keith asked with a sinking feeling.

Slowly, Shiro said, “We might have to house them for the duration of—”

“No,” Keith refused flatly, crossing his arms.

There was a pause as Shiro gazed at him with the steadiness of thoughtful but firm reasoning.

“It’s your home, Keith. You can choose whoever you want to house.” The ‘anyone except knights’ went unsaid. Shiro knew the context. “You can still turn them away if you want and I won’t push. But just consider what other options there are. Now what do you want to do?”

Keith tightened his grip against the sleeve of his thin coat.

With the larger knight out, that left the other one to support him into town but with a broken leg, that wasn’t possible. Keith could help but, he realized with dawning dread, did he really want to let them back into Velkri when one of them could tell everyone there about Shiro?

He turned to stare at the knight who had yet to take his eyes off Shiro throughout.

No, he didn’t trust him to keep his mouth shut. Not for a second. He was the kind of person who would immediately go to the nearest tavern and start shouting about Shiro at the top of his lungs to an entire room full of hunters. Of course, there’d be people who wouldn’t believe him, but there were also always fanatics and then…

“Fine,” Keith said sharply, forcibly cutting his thoughts off before they could go down that path. “We’ll take them to my house.”

He hated it, but it was better than the other alternative. At least while they’re there, he could keep an eye on the loudmouth knight as he figured out what to do about his knowledge of Shiro.

Shiro nodded and then turned to the knight.

“Would that be okay? I’m sorry we can’t take you right into town where there’s better medical aid, but it’s the best solution I can think of in these circumstances,” he told him apologetically.

“What? No, no! I-It’s fine! I appreciate it, really.” The knight stuttered, smiling before it turned sheepish. “But uh… we were actually sent here to find a guy named Tynum. He’s kind of bulky, black hair, wears lots of furs. He led a hunting party a few days ago and he hadn’t come back so… I kind of have to find him and broken leg or not, I have to bring him back.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll find him and guide him back in your stead,” Shiro offered.

“How?” the knight asked, equally as baffled as he was keenly interested.

“You don’t need to know that,” Keith interrupted harshly. “Do you want our help or not?”

“Keith.” Shiro’s tone held traces of admonishment in it and Keith pressed his lips tightly together into a thin line of displeasure. “The details are long and kind of unimportant right now. First, we should really get you and your friend medical attention.”

The knight hesitated, stare sliding over to the other knight, and he nodded. “Okay, yeah. Getting Hunk some treatment is more important.”

Turning to Pidge, Shiro asked, “Could you go ahead of us and get things set up for when we get there?”

“You got it,” Pidge said with a salute and then took off for the house.

“Keith?”

At the query, Keith dragged his eyes from one of the large boulders surrounding him to Shiro’s. There was apology there that squeezed at Keith’s heart.

Shiro was just trying to do the right thing and the choice was Keith’s in the end. He knew Shiro would’ve went along with whatever he decided to do even if it meant the knight would get a very painful and uncomfortable ride down the mountain on Red’s back.

But more than anything, Shiro’s safety came first and he wouldn’t have let that knight return to Velkri anyway if Keith could take advantage of the time he’ll be spending under his roof to beat into his head to keep Shiro a secret, one way or another.

He couldn’t say that out loud, but they were going to be talking about this later. Keith could see the promise of a discussion written in the firmness of his gaze.

“Do you want a ride on me or Red?” Shiro continued to ask.

“I’ll go with you,” Keith replied almost automatically. He cast a glance towards Red, who was sitting beside him, and she stood up, bumping her head against his chest before running off, presumably back home as well.

Shiro nodded and lowered himself so that Keith could climb on behind the big knight named Hunk. There was nothing to grab onto except Hunk in front of him, but that was one of the reasons he was returning on Shiro anyway; to ensure Hunk didn’t fall off. Shiro’s wind magic would’ve been enough to keep him on, but it didn’t hurt to have an extra pair of steadying hands.

When Keith was settled, Shiro stood up again to focus on the last remaining person still there. “Alright, I’m going to move you now. It’ll hurt but bear with me, okay? Tell me when you’re ready.”

The knight gave a toothy grin. “Ready’s my middle name.”

“Alright. Here we go.”

Shiro reached towards the knight with his claws, digging them into the rock ground as if it were soil, and slowly scooped him up. Some of the ground crumbled off, but enough remained intact so that it served as a bed of stone of sorts. Still, despite how gently and carefully Shiro lifted him up, the knight let out groans of pain as his injuries were jolted.

When Shiro was done picking him up, he held still to give the knight a breather.

“You okay there?” Shiro asked.

“Never… Never been… better,” the knight panted, cheerful voice tight with pain.

“Sorry, once we’re in the air, it’ll be a bit better.”

“Looking forward to it.” He gave a weak laugh.

Shiro tucked the knight against his chest and with a powerful push, he was in the air, his magic keeping the wind from jostling them and smoothing out Shiro’s passage in the sky so that Keith could hardly even feel like he was in flight.

They headed home.


End file.
